Non-stationarity of solute travel time distribution observed in a controlled hydrologic transport volume

Enrico Bertuzzo, Gianluca Botter, Luca Carraro, Pierre Claude Jean Queloz, Andrea Rinaldo
2013
Poster talk

Abstract

We report on the outcomes of a lysimeter experiment aimed at the measurement of travel time distributions of water and certain nonreactive solutes under non-stationary conditions to examine the kinematics of age mixing. In order to simulate the release of a compound in a receiving water body, it is common in hydrology to attribute a travel time probability distribution to each particle, which reflects the response of a catchment unit to a solute input. Hence, the concentration measured at a control section becomes the convolution between the travel time distribution and the concentration of the inputs throughout the past. This study aims at experimentally demonstrating that the tracer travel time probability distribution is, in fact, strongly dependent on the antecedent conditions at the time of tracer injection and the subsequent states experienced in the system. It is therefore a function of numerous transient processes such as hydrologic filtering in soils, climatic forcing or evapotranspiration patterns. A 2-meter deep weighing lysimeter was equipped with a discharge measurement system coupled with a sample collector, an array of water content sensors and an array of porous cups for soil water sampling at three different depths. Controlled random rainfall following a Poisson process was generated, and evapotranspiration losses from two willow trees planted in the lysimeter created an important soil-water storage deficit. Five species of fluorobenzoic acids were used as tracers, and sequentially injected through rainfall at different times. The measurement system installed allowed a precise and accurate monitoring of every input and output flux and water storage, which is crucial to determine the conditions influencing the travel time distribution and to calculate the mass loads and recovery rates. Breakthrough curves for multiple tracers measured at several depths within the lysimeter and at the lysimeter outlet provide support for non-stationary tracer travel time distribution. Additional data are being collected, and will be compared with an exact solution of non-stationary distribution assuming random sampling of ages.

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Enrico Bertuzzo, Gianluca Botter, Luca Carraro, Pierre Claude Jean Queloz, Andrea Rinaldo
2013
Poster talk

Abstract

Official source

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/209179?ln=en

About this result

Related concepts (12)

Related concepts

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Related publications

Non-stationarity in experimental travel time measured in a lysimeter: theoretical and modeling lessons from a simplified hydrological system

Enrico Bertuzzo, Gianluca Botter, Luca Carraro, Pierre Claude Jean Queloz, Andrea Rinaldo

Experimental data have been collected over a year-long period in a large weighing lysimeter. Natural climatic forcing occurs, except for rainfall which is artificially generated as a given Poisson process at a daily timescale. A constant water table is maintained and excess infiltrated water is discharged through the outlet at the bottom of the lysimeter. Soil water storage and evapotranspiration fluxes (accentuated by a willow tree planted in the lysimeter) were monitored throughout the experiment, so that accurate time series of all in- and out-fluxes are available. Five rainfall inputs were marked with individually traceable passive solutes (fluorobenzoic acids) at various initial soil moisture conditions during the first month of the experiment. Tracer concentrations were measured in the soil water and in the discharge at high temporal resolution. We aim here at directly measuring solute travel times, a proxy of hydrological transport with the main advantage to blend the bulk effects of water velocity distributions. The drivers of water displacement in this hydrological setting – and in any other realistic case – have intrinsically a non-stationary nature (e.g. random rainfall occurrence, seasonal evapotranspiration cycles and moisture-related soil connectivity), but the integration of these processes over a larger time scale (i.e. typically the time scale of the mean travel time) often lead to the stationary assumption thus considerably simplifying the data interpretation. Results clearly show that even in such a hydrological system with reduced complexity, experimental travel time distributions are non-stationary and are strongly influenced by the states encountered by the system during the transport phase. The measurements help at identifying the relevant key features influencing the experimental bulk transport. Modeling efforts have demonstrated the inability of a plug-flow reactor (old-water first reservoir) to reproduce the solute outfluxes dynamics. On the other hand, the well-mixed reactor performs well at long term, but hardly applies for the period directly following the tracer injection.

2014

This thesis deal with experimental, field and modeling studies on reactive solute transport within hydrologic control volumes. The substances used in open environments for plant protection and other purposes are likely to be flushed by rainfall and enter into the hydrologic system if they are not disposed of through a sewage network. This represents a significant hazard for receiving ecosystems. The concentrations observed in surface waters are often highly dynamic, because of the variability of the hydrologic drivers controlling solute transport. This makes surface water monitoring particulary laborious, thus calling for a better understanding, and description of hydrologic transport at relevant spatial and temporal scales. The features of hydrologic transport are investigated under controlled conditions in a large weighing lysimeter, where all input (rainfall) and output (evapotranspiration and bottom discharge) fluxes are closely monitored. Random rainfall and large evapotranspiration (ET) fluxes dictated by two willows induce highly variable hydrologic conditions in the system. Fluorobenzoic acids (FBAs) as well as isotopically labeled water were used to unequivocally mark selected rainfall events. Chemical analyses were performed on samples of discharge and soil water collected through sampling ports in order to estimate the breakthrough curves of each tracer. Besides revealing unreported reactive behavior of the FBAs, these results demonstrate non stationary tracer responses that not only result from the transient precipitation forcing, but also from the variability in the ET-induced water deficits and how the output fluxes sample the water and solutes in storage under the prevalent moisture conditions. The experimental data were further explored using a model based on travel time distributions (TTDs). Describing hydrologic transport using TTDs is becoming increasingly common in catchment hydrology, because it allows a collective measurement of many processes (climate forcing, internal mixing, flow pathways, etc.) into a single stochastic descriptor, therefore removing the need to estimate numerous physical parameters and circumventing the limited applicability of point-scale laws for structurally complex and heterogenous environments. This parsimonious model is able to reproduce the different tracer responses by keeping track of the age composition of the stored water and assessing the ways ET and discharge sample the available water ages in time. The results emphasize the effects of ET on solute transport, because it samples water of different ages (i.e. residence times) in the transport volume in regards to discharge and thereby strongly modifies the resulting TTDs. In this way it is possible to compare the respective roles of the hydrologic variability and reactivity attributes (namely plant uptake and microbial degradation) which affect the tracer responses and prevent a direct interpretation of the experimental breakthrough curves as TTDs. \ These experimental and modeled results highlight the importance of non stationary transport, often overlooked to interpret tracer data in catchment hydrology. This thesis demonstrates the benefits of tracer experiments towards the understanding of hydrologic systems undergoing reactive transport.

EPFL2015

Fonctionnement hydrique de différents types de placages sableux dans le sahel burkinabè

Dial Niang

The study was performed in the Sahelian part of Burkina Faso. The country is subject to difficult climatic conditions, a strong demographic growth and a continuous decrease in soil fertility. The resulting degradation affects the processes which govern ecological systems and leads, on the long run, to a modification of the ecosystems. This is particularly the case of the eolian formations, the only ecological units susceptible of being useful in the area, since they present good infiltration capacity and support the main part of the vegetation. Field measurements (rainfall, runoff, saturated hydraulic conductivity, bulk density, hydraulic conductivity function, soil water content and pressure head) have been done to asses the impacts of the environmental degradation on the hydrodynamic behavior of these formations. Within this context, an experimental device made of seven measurement sites has been installed in three contrasting zones. The results show significant differences in the hydrodynamic behavior of the soils, according to their surface properties. On one hand, the sites located on an erosion crust as well as on a drying crust in transition towards an erosion crust, are characterized by a low infiltration capacity which favors runoff. The quantity of infiltrated water is very low when compared to total precipitation. Water is stored near the soil surface (in the first 30 cm) favoring evaporation in the days following rainfall events. Thus, little water is available for plants. The resulting water stress causes a weak density, or even complete absence of plants which have difficulties to colonize such surfaces. Surface runoff is favored with runoff coefficients ranging from 50 to 80 %. On the other hand, the sites situated on drying crusts are characterized by good hydraulic conductivity and infiltration capacity. The storage of water in the root zone is more important. Water flows deeper into the soil and, occasionally, drains at the reference depth of 50 cm. The runoff coefficients were found to be lower than in the other sites (30 to 40 %). This differentiated behavior is one of the main factors affecting the formation of different landscapes in the area through the existence of a relationship between soil surface properties, the type of landscape and the ratio runoff/infiltration. The sites located on an erosion crust and those in transition towards an erosion crust behave like impluviums, while those situated on drying crusts are more favorable to infiltration. Observation of the evolution of the hydraulic properties of the soil surface shows a progressive alteration that frequently leads to strongly degraded mediums unfavorable to plants. Control and rehabilitation methods considered in the study, namely "restoration" and "mise en défens" have only partial and time-limited effects; they do not make it possible to stop durably degradation or to favor rehabilitation. Among the other measures assessed on the INERA plots, only the restitution to the soil of the beforehand mown plants causes an improvement of the soil surface properties; the restitution causes the formation of an important macroporal system favoring water infiltration and circulation in the soil. The effects of those different measures occur mainly in the first years after their introduction and concern especially vegetation regeneration, soil protection against degradation factors, improvement of hydrodynamic soil properties, reduction of runoff and erosion. They make it possible to slow down soil degradation, but not to stop it definitively. Within this context, proposals of further studies focussed on other measures to control and rehabilitate degraded areas have been suggested, taking into account the specificity of the sahelian zone, the endogenous knowledge of the agro-pastors, as well as socio-economic and ecological conditions.

EPFL2006